MA State Tri Pics

I forgot to mention any actual *details* of my race in that report - doh! Here they are in all their gory detail:
  

Finish: 2:44:00 

AG Place: 4/15

Swim*: 30:05 

Bike: 1:20:21 

Run: 51:29         
   

*Remember, it was a no wetsuit swim!!!!

That put me 95th OA, 23/116 OA women, 4/15 AG.

What I'm most pleased about is my overall consistency - 25/116 in swim, 32/116 in bike, 29/116 in run. Usually my bike split is MUCH worse than that in terms of placement in the field, as is my run. So I'm seeing definite improvement this season - sweet!!!!!

And here are a couple of pics of the day:

Can you blame me for the tears????? Rock Stars.

Swim. I like this pic.

Climbing the long hill.

At the top. Ouch. I can see sweat dripping off my chin. That's pretty.

Bringing it in.

At the finish. No real need for this additional finish pic, but my legs look totally ripped so I couldn't resist.

Blood, Sweat and Tears

I raced this past Sunday, the Massachusetts State Triathlon. While I'm always jazzed about my races, this one felt particularly exciting as I raced last year and had a LOUSY race (hissy fit thrown by another competitor during the swim messed with my head and I never really recovered). This year was all about redemption on the course, which I thought I would have otherwise enjoyed.

I had a solid week leading into the race - a few hard workouts early in the week (see previous post about slaying SheDevil below), with a few easier workouts to get ready for the big day on Sunday. I was feeling solid and ready to go! I was even relieved that wetsuits weren't allowed if you wanted to compete in your AG - thank GOD! It would have been MUCH too hot to wear one, but I would have felt compelled if everyone else was - I wouldn't give away the free speed, but was very happy to have it taken away from all of us for the heat relief. Once I figured out what to wear (Compete in a swim suit? Could the undercarriage tolerate 26 miles on the bike sans tri-shorts? Try to put on tri shorts in T1? Can you actually pull spandex over a soaking wet lower body? Wear the 1-piece tri-suit? Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!!!) I was psyched and ready to go.

I was particularly excited about this race because I was finally going to meet Ange, a total ROCK-STAR athlete and all around wonderful woman. I've "known" her via her blog and Facebook for a few years now, but haven't had the opportunity to formally meet in person. I was really psyched to finally meet this true wonder woman! Anne, who was also racing that day, and I arrived at the site with plenty of time to spare, which was really quite nice. As we are walking in from the parking lot, I see a familiar form. I know that bike. I know that race suit. Can it be Ange? I'm pretty sure it's Ange!!!!!! We catch up to her as we enter the transition area and it WAS her! It was awesome to finally meet her, if only for a few minutes before we all had to start taking care of business. I like this venue a lot - plenty of close parking, and a large transition area that has a high energy feel to it. We saw a few other folks who we knew, and I had some time to get in a quick bike warm up and a warm up swim. I was ready. Let's go!!!!!

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Tears

Let's start with the tears. The Hoyt's happened to be racing on Sunday as well - while I of course know about them and have openly wept while seeing their story on TV and on-line, I hadn't yet had the privilege of racing with them. After my swim warm up, I saw Rick waiting to start on the lake in his raft. Seeing him there, smiling, ready to go as soon as the race got going........ Oh boy, here it comes. The tight throat. The shallow breathing. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. I am NOT going to cry. Instead, I moved a bit further down the beach so I couldn't see them as easily and got back to the business of focusing on my own race.  Whew. That was a close call!!!!!!

We have a LONG wait before our wave, the LAST wave of the day, goes off. The Sprint racers start first, then the Oly waves head in. It was a good 20 minutes before us blue-cappers were hitting the water. By then, the Hoyt's had finished their swim (Dick pulls Rick as he swims using a harness attached to the raft) and were getting ready for the bike leg. Their bike was RIGHT next to where we were currently lined up - I could have reached out and touched them as they were getting settled. It was so incredible watching them - everyone was of course clapping and cheering, and what struck me the most was how happy EVERYONE was. Rick was clearly cracking everyone up - his mom (I assumed it was Mom) was helping Dick get him set in his bike seat and they both were smiling and laughing, even though it was clearly hard work getting him settled. They were LOVING this! That was the end of me - the tears finally made it out.......

Quickly enough it was time for us to go! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!! The swim went well and I still marvel at how far I've come in this leg - from being scared out of my MIND during my first race to now truly loving the swim, and a non-wetsuit swim at that. Incredible, just incredible!

Sweat

The heat was already in full swing as the bike leg started. You know it's going to be a hot day when you are DRIPPING on the bike, and it's not from still being wet from the swim! I had a plan and I stuck to it - biked hard, but not out of my control, and felt really solid and strong out there. The course is a nice one - I hope they can manage to fix the roads before next year as there were sections that were truly just BRUTALLY bad. One of the longer downhill stretches had one of the worst sections - I hit what felt like a ski jump and swear that I went totally airborne! YIKES! Bad roads aside, I feel like I had a solid bike and felt some serious competitive juices flowing - at one point, while gearing up to pass another woman, the following thought went through my head: "It's time to put the beat down on her. Go." WTH was THAT about???? "...the beat down???" Seriously????? But I will admit that it felt gooooooooood to feel so competitive. I'm coming along here!!!!!

Blood

It's not uncommon for me to head out on the run and immediately fall apart mentally. "Why am I doing this? This sucks!!!!! I have a cramp, I should walk. Good god, I'm walking. I suck at this. Why am I doing this again????" I'm happy to say that I think those days are over. I hit the run feeling good - 6.2 miles of hard running and this bad boy was in the bank. Go go go go go!!!!!!!!! While not easy by a long stretch, I actually felt really good on the run - I was running, and running hard, and my thoughts were mostly positive. I saw Ange as she was heading back in from the turnaround - wow. She looked amazing - I was happy that I got to cheer her on and she was kicking ass!!!!!! I love out and back courses because I can see who is in front of me. I counted the women .... 1 .... 2 ..... 3 ............ 14 ...... 15 ..... Sigh, stop counting, this is getting depressing. But, wait!!!!! They all looked young. And the youngsters started in a previous wave!!!!!! I'm ok. Yes, I'm ok. I also noted that they all looked WICKED fit and fast. And I wasn't all that far behind them. Hmmmmmmm. Am I actually starting to be (can I actually say it?) good? Wow. Maybe!

I was happy to hold it together for the full duration of the run - definitely my best overall Olympic distance performance. And I'm almost good. And that feels ...... GREAT.


But where's the blood, you ask? Ok, ok. There wasn't any. But Blood, Sweat and Tears sounded like such a good post title, I couldn't resist! I did have quite a nasty spot of chafing on my ankle from my timing chip strap though - does that count?

The Devil Came Down to Winchester.....

We all have these types of internal struggles - or at least I hope it's not just me. You have a great morning training session, and afterwards, are excited about what you need to do for your second session later in the day. For me, that's after work - a long time after that first workout, which means many opportunities can appear to nix that evening workout. The day goes on. It gets hot and muggy out. I didn't eat enough. I'm a little stressed about work. And then the killer happens. SheDevil shows up.

I hate SheDevil - she can be incredibly convincing, but she is Bad News and needs to be kept at bay. But here she was, showing up around 5pm, planting some seeds of doubt: "You know you aren't REALLY going to do that track workout tonight Michelle. It's way too hot and sticky out, and you haven't eaten enough today. You'll be miserable." SheDevil has a point. It IS hot and sticky out, which means that a painful track workout is going to be made even more painful. And I HAVEN'T eaten enough, so I'll probably bonk. Hmmmmm. Maybe SheDevil is right?

And so it goes for the last hour of the day, before I head home and have to make the decision about what to change into: running clothes, or comfy hang-out clothes.

To my surprise I was able to ignore SheDevil and put on the running clothes as soon as I got home. I convinced her that I'd do a FEW repeats (7x800 at anaerobic plus pace - I was shooting for 3:31's, which would hurt, and hurt badly), see how I feel, and if I were TRULY miserable after 3, I'd throw in the towel. I grab my iPod and head out the door, to soon discover that the iPod battery is dead. "See," said SheDevil, "your iPod isn't even charged. You are not meant to do this run today." But I ignore her again and throw the iPod back in the house and head around the corner to the local high school track where I do my interval work. While I usually run with music, I figured I could entertain myself easily enough during the intervals - focus on my form, my breathing pattern, on not puking. That kinda thing. I do a few warm up laps around the track, and feel SheDevil's pull: "It is so hot and gross out - you are already soaked with sweat, just after an easy warm-up! This is going to kill you. And you know if you don't hit your intervals, you'll be upset. So why bother trying?"

Interval #1 starts. I check my split after the first 400 and find that I'm being a bit too aggressive: 1:40. While I feel good, I remind myself I have 7 of these and I can't blow up after 4. "But I thought we were only doing 3-4 anyway?" SheDevil chimes in. I finish the first interval in 3:25. Ooops - a little too fast, but I'm feeling good! Let's just slow the next one down a tad and see how it goes. Only 6 left!!!!!!! The next interval went just as well, and I dialed it back to a ..... 3:26. Come on, no blowing up here - slow it down! But the speed on such a yucky day (it really WAS hot and humid, and I really WAY underfueled and a bit hungry) gave me some confidence - I was going to finish this workout. Not just finish it, but KILL it!!!!!!

But SheDevil was persistent, continually looking for a chink in the armour: "Look at those dark clouds over there - it is going to start to storm soon!" "Did you feel that little pulling feeling in your hamstring? You don't want to pull a muscle before the race this weekend. Let's call it a day after this one - whaddayousay?" "But I LOVE running in the train, and running in the rain while doing tough intervals on the track, an already badass workout, would be doubly badass! BRING ON THE RAIN!!!!!" "No, no, I really didn't feel anything funny in my hamstring - I'm settling in nicely. I think it's time for you to just Shut. The. Hell. Up."

With each interval, the Devil was driven back, back, back. I ended up finishing all 7 intervals and nailing the workout - totally crushing my original goal split time and holding all of them sub-3:30's, finishing with my strongest at 3:24. "Just call me The Hammer because I just NAILED that workout!!!!!!!" That thought made SheDevil recoil in horror. It was the stupidest thing she's ever heard, and she wasn't going to stick around for the ridiculous giggling that she knew was coming as I ran home. The Hammer. Does that even make sense? I didn't care - at the time I thought it was freaking hilarious, and I laughed to myself all the way home. I'd blame oxygen deprivation, except I'm STILL laughing to myself about it...... I am SUCH a dork.

Jogging home, with a huge smile on my face, I realized there was likely a good life lesson in this to convey to the kids. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, or some such drivel. But all I came up with was my usual "Wanna hug?" when I walked in the door. This is a running joke in the family - I come in all smelly and sweaty and gross, and sincerely ask for a big hug. Which of course sends them running and screaming away in disgust. Good times.

Tonight's victory over SheDevil would just have to remain my little secret. 

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I realize I haven't blogged in ..... forever. An embarrassingly long time, in fact. But during this little battle with SheDevil last night, I realized that I really missed it, so I'm back!!!!! I hope you enjoy reading about my ramblings, and that you don't call the looney bin to have them pick me up. I don't think I'm ACTUALLY crazy, although with all the internal dialog I have in my head during my workouts, it might not be a totally ridiculous notion.